S.T.E.M. is one of the acronyms du jour in the current public education debate: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Some education reformers believe that these four disciplines are taking a hit in our public education system and explain the decline in achievement test scores among U.S. students compared to their peers worldwide. At the same time, I would suggest that an overemphasis on S.T.E.M. will cause other essential areas of education to suffer at a net cost to the next generations of students and our country as a whole. S.T.E.M. strikes me as offering too narrow a focus to produce a truly well-educated and balanced citizenry capable of being engaged members and vital contributors to all parts of our society. In place of S.T.E.M., I would recommend that we broaden our focus onto S.T.A.M.P.E.R (policy wonks do love their cute acronyms!) which stands for Science, Technology, Arts, Mathematics, Physical, Emotions, and Reason. …

It is a scenario that I just don’t want to believe because it affirms my (our!) worst impressions of public education for the poor in America. This post has everything you would expect from a massively flawed and inertial monolith: a system failed, a bureaucracy corrupted, teachers subverted, and young people disserved. It has all the makings of a tragedy for students, teachers, and the public education system as a whole. …

About one hundred years ago, Sigmund Freud laid the foundation for the development of the projective test, like the Rorschach, as a means of indirectly assessing people’s psyches and identifying their deepest needs and emotions. Though the value of projective tests has been questioned, I would suggest that such formal tests aren’t necessary anymore. We need look no further than television to find out what’s on the minds of Americans these days. So, in the name of increasing our understanding of what makes America tick, I thought it would be interesting to put the television-viewing habits of America on the couch and see what we can learn. The hot trends in American television these days fall into three general categories: procedural crime shows, shows related to supernatural abilities, and reality TV. The popularity of these types of shows opens a window into the current American psyche that is both fascinating and troubling. …

Is civility dead? It sure seems so. In recent years, the quality of discourse in America has declined dramatically. Rarely in discussions of any import these days, whether politics, religion, the economy, education, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the list goes on, is there a respectful exchange of ideas. Instead, such interactions are either one-sided or full of ad hominem attacks or self-serving misinformation. Just watch or listen to most political campaign ads these days. The founders of the United States of America would roll over in their graves if they could see how the country and political system they created has devolved in recent years. …

There would be more than 19,000,000 and counting of those minutes given that is the number of copies of The Secret that have been sold to date. And that doesn’t include collateral minutes born of purchases of her CDs, DVDs, wall calendars, key rings, and assorted other inspirational tchotchkes available for sale. Plus, her new book, The Power, is now number one on the New York Times advice bestseller list, so there are many more minutes ahead for many more suckers to be born. …

I’ve been hearing so much about budget cuts to public education in the news lately. In recent months, there have been demonstrations all over the Bay Area protesting the massive budget cuts to public colleges, and secondary and elementary schools throughout California. And these protests weren’t just on the college campuses of Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and Davis, but also at elementary and high schools with kids and parents expressing their outrage. It’s particularly unsettling for me because our eldest daughter will be going to kindergarten next year and we’ve been touring the local schools. The constant drumbeat we hear from administrators, teachers, and parents is how painful it is to have to fire teachers, reduce or eliminate teachers’ aides and specialists, scrap arts, language, and physical education programs, and increase class sizes. …

Of course I’m concerned about the financial well-being of our citizens. Every layoff and foreclosure hurts not only individuals and their families, but also the over-all health of our economy. But, given my Ph.D. in Psychology, I’m also deeply concerned about the impact of the Great Recession on the individual psyches of Americans who strain under its weight and the collective zeitgeist that the financial crisis may spawn in the coming years. …

For those of you who follow my Psychology of Technology blog posts (here), you know that I’m a bit cynical about how technology is impacting us, particularly when it comes to how we define relationships. My worries aren’t so great that I’m looking to wipe out our communications grid with an electromagnetic pulse or anything like that, but the ways in which new media have changed our ability to establish relationships have me concerned. But this post isn’t about all the problems that new media may cause. To the contrary, I want to honor a truly wonderful aspect of this rapidly emerging and evolving technology. I’m talking about the online communities that offer knowledge bases, forums, and collaboration in an area of common interest. …

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